The Surprising Candidacy of Bernie Sanders

The Surprising Candidacy of Bernie Sanders

The electoral race that is just beginning in the United States will go down in the history of that nation as a unique scenario of extreme candidacies within the restricted political parameters characterizing these processes in the country that proclaims itself the champion of democracy on the planet.

The first to raise the alarm when presenting his entry for nomination was the Republican Party billionaire Donald Trump, with an impressive spontaneous support from the ranks of that party to a sort of fascistic program defended with semi-populist tricks.

In the first months of campaigning, Trump left behind the most prominent figures among the Republican Party candidates, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush –son and brother of presidents of the United States– and several senators, governors and outstanding figures in politics and finance.

Only the Donald Trump phenomenon, and the evidence of the serious dangers a presidency of such a disturbing character could bring to the United States (whose ascent is considered possible considering the election to the White House of other no less fearsome “great men” namely Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, Jr.) have been able to conceal the significance of the rise of the possibilities of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

Having emerged from the slums of New York’s Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders has come to offer US citizens nothing less than an invitation to join him in a political revolution that would restrain the billionaire class which possesses all the wealth.

Sanders suddenly became the sole US politician advocating a real change in national and foreign policies since the Cold War and, using an unusual language, despite being a veteran politician 74 years of age –the oldest of all pre-candidates– has become the voice of the youth in this election.

The fact that the political discourse of an old man appeals so strongly to young people confirms that it is not the form of his message but, definitely, its content. Sanders proposes nothing less than to end nearly four decades of neo-liberal policies implemented by both parties within the country that leads capitalism in the world.

He promises a change in the relationship between his country and Puerto Rico and all of Latin America. This means ending all forms of interference in the internal affairs of its neighbors. As well, he’s for ending support to dictatorships which caused the many disappearances and torture of fighters for change that reached a peak during Operation Condor . In the 1970s and 1980s, this program carried out actions with the leaders of dictatorial regimes in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador with overall US coordination.

Particularly interesting is the fact that the surprising support to a US political shift to the left, this time comes not only from young students, immigrants and workers outside the “establishment” –as in the 1960 and at other times in the history of the nation– but is strong in other age groups of citizens fully inserted in the “establishment”.

Sanders condemns the greed of Wall Street, the corruption of the electoral and political systems, and the theft of the future young people and workers in the U.S.

His message has awakened memories of glorious struggles for equality, civil rights, labor and immigrants rights.

Sanders has been ignored or attacked by the corporate media, by experts and by the leadership of his own party, but almost always has managed to stun the great corporate media and the opponents who have predicted his debacle, remaining as a real option since he launched his campaign last year until now.

For those who know that the average US American has little political awareness. This is a result of the intense pressure exercised by the “establishment” in this area, and so it will come as an extraordinary surprise that, with a platform like that offered by Bernie Sanders, an aspiring figure as a candidate for the White House, he could reach beyond the first internal debates of the party that sponsors him in a country so dominated by Wall Street and the military complex.

It is surprising that, within a population that until so recently feared the word socialism, support for Sanders has reached so high.

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